Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG)

About Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG)

To encourage business to adopt information technology, Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) is created. The scheme aimed to move local business a step closer to SMART city. As a business consultant, we have witnessed there is still a significant portion of business without automation. Information Technology in this era is important because it removes the mundane manual process from our daily activity.

PSG is crafted as a replacement for Innovation and Capability Voucher (ICV). To refresh your memory, ICV voucher allows each registered business to utilise eight vouchers (worth $5,000 each) to strengthen their business core. It covers consultancy and purchase of small business solutions. However, the scheme ended in 2018 and all claims have to be submitted before 31 Dec 2018.

Back to PSG scheme, solutions are pre-scoped by various government entities for different industries. It largely includes retail, food, precision engineering, construction and landscaping industries. The scheme funds purchase for up to 70% and SMEs could find out the list of solutions from Tech Depot.

Requirement

SMEs can apply for PSG if they meet the following criteria:

Registered and operating in Singapore

Purchase/lease/subscription of the IT solutions or equipment must be used in Singapore

Have a minimum of 30% local shareholding (for selected solutions only)

5 things to take note before purchasing a software

This rule of the thumb applies in any situations so long as you are making a purchase. Do not jump into the bandwagon without evaluating the package. It is too late to regret once you made the payment.

Most solutions are SaaS – This means the business would have to start paying for usage from the second year onwards.

Limited features – Most solutions are designed for the need of a small business, and they might not enjoy advanced features. You might want to compare it with the freeware offered to evaluate the features before making a decision.

It is created for small business – Please enquire on the user licensing before you made the purchase. Some solutions allow less than 5 users and might not be suitable for business.

Ability to integrate with external software – Due to the fact that most of the features have to be standardised for approval. Vendors might not be willing to create an integration plugin and this resulted in the purchase to be a stand-alone software.

Data might not be portable – As the business grow their need might change and hence they might want to move onto a new software. If you could not export the data, SME is literally locked into using the same software.

Conclusion on PSG scheme

The equipment support for the scheme is rather attractive because SME could always source for equipment that meets their needs. No doubt the software is from reputable vendors but the need for a business might evolve and change. As a business consulting firm, we support business to embrace information technology. Small business tends to have a low resource, PSG scheme no doubt is a small but significant step. It is in our wishlist that the scheme could expand to include more industrial and solution providers.